Gone Fishin'
This marks an unbelievable number of attempts to post something in here filled with meaning, intelligence, and relevant to my life. I can't do it right now. It feels like at this point my life is overflowing with ideas and thoughts and new experiences. Ideally this would make great blog material, only since my mind has become so inundated with thoughts I'm having trouble synthesizing them in an order not resembling chaos. It's frustrating to write about... But that's about my only complaint. My life is quite blissful right now, and surrendering to the emotions of the moment satisfy me in an obvious way that blogging will not. So for now, I'm going to put this blog away. I'm sure I'll be back, so be sure to drop by again from time to time. I might miss you, but probably won't, I still don't even know who it is that reads this blog-- you never comment you jerk. I'll end this on a suggestive note that is the beginning of my problem with blogging. I can't sit still enough to write out what's on my mind because my thoughts wander, and all I can think about is this huge world ripe for new experiences, a mind full of unexplored thoughts, and an imagination where the possibilities really are endless. Maybe if you share those thoughts with me I'll see you fishin'.
I was listening to CJSR earlier today and they were spinning some electronica. I'm a recent fan, synth is cool and the extraneous beats play well on me. The DJ starts talking about infinity and I'm like "Wha? It's not 4:20". It was in fact an introduction for the next song. He breaks out this somewhat philosophical argument about how he thinks thoughts of infinity destroy creativity. He explains that expression easily gets mixed up when large to endless amounts of variables are mixed together. He says that often focus is lost when artists try convey such large perspectives. I'm thinking wow this is pretty intense I can't wait to hear what he's going to play. He goes onto explain how he praises this next artist for keeping his focus small and for really exploring a simple idea. He says not many people can use a nintendo like this guy can. The artist (I wish I could find a sample) called something like Nintenguy or Nintengo uses the 8 bit sound processor from the original Nintendo to compose music. It was horrible. I know this doesn't add up to much but I thought it was quite humerous after the DJ spilled this deep introduction for a guy who mixes using a nintendo.
Linkage
So I updated a few links and thought I would explain some of them. From top to bottom I suppose.
- I've been Listening to a radio show on CJSR called Democracy now. They always have great material and their website is quite comprehensive. Make it a regular visit!
- Grassroots.org. I was browsing Jayme's page the other day and through a series of links ended up on this page which definately deserves to be checked out by all grassroots enthusiasts and people interested in using the internet as a means of change.
-Noam Chomsky's Blog. Holy cow, I nearly shit myself when I found this. After reading Manufacturing Consent and watching various documentary's (wherein he schools corporate-capitalst war mongers) I don't know why I didn't look for his blog sooner. Noam is a hero of mine and his blog is definately something everyone should check out.
-I added a "funny" section to my links in order to accomodate a Napoleon Dynamite soundboard and the Penny Arcade comic strip. I was going to stick them in inspirational but some how listeing to Napoleon say "Lucky" or "Idiot" a hundred times doesn't resonate with any creative or deeply emotional chords. It might make you a little more stupid in fact. Good fun for the whole family... or just by yourself. Don't listen to them too much or Napoleon will echo in your head all day.
Hope everyone checks 'em out. Take it easy today.
Gmail Invites Galore
I have 50 gmail invites to give away. For those of you who don't know gmail is a free webmail service offered by Google which is still beta testing. It's pretty much the most amazing webmail service ever, giving users a gigbyte of free space with a search engine to browse through old e-mails. Pretty nifty. Leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you an invite if you're interested.
Bad People, Good People.
Forgot to Post this last Friday...
Most of you will know from previous posts and lengthy rants that I work in the service industry. It's not the best job, but its good money and I'll do whatever I can to save money for school and to move out. I won't lie about the fact that my job is a huge source of fuel for the cynicism I pass onto other perspectives in my life. I get angry with people who don't treat me like a human being (seems like an obvious response, but not many people choose places of work where this practice happens on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. The anger builds up when all you can really do at work is smile, and you're not allowed to throw food back in peoples faces). The majority of people are good people, but a small and persistant percentage of people are in my books totally evil. At least once a shift, a family, couple, single guy, older lady (It's totally random) will sit down pleasantly enjoy their meal, act happy and generous and when you give them the bill they don't tip you. At the end of the day these types of people get absorbed into the generosity of the majority and it all comes out in the wash. Also it's usually moderate sized cheques ($20-$50) and usually no more than one a shift.
A little background info before I begin my story. Where I work there is a mandatory tip-out of 2.5%. This means that if you sell $1000 worth of food you owe $25, it automatically is added to the amount of cash that you need to deposit at the end of the day. This money goes into a pool and is split up by the cooks and the hostesses. I'm supportive of this system, the cooks usually do an awesome job as well as the hostesses. The average I would say that people tip me is between %12-%15, and so subtracting the 2.5 percent isn't that big a deal.
Tonight was interesting. It was a really busy night and tables were moving in and out pretty much non-stop from 5-9. Rushes don't usually last more than an hour and a half, and so everyone was kind of spent. A table of 9 sits down in my section. They all order drinks (alchohol) and appetizers and then finally supper. I bust my ass getting their order together, getting it all put in the computer, making sure everyone's drinks stay full and taking numerous orders for refills. I run all their food out to them, make sure everything's tasting alright, do everything I can to make sure everything runs smoothly. This table spends about an hour and a half in my service and after bringing them dessert and coffee they want their cheque. The total now is $195. A guy gives me his credit card and I run it through for him. (It authorizes it for the total of $195, and I return a couple of paper slips to him to be signed, it's up to him to write in an additional tip amount or leave cash or leave whatever he thinks is right.)
After they all leave I'm clearing the table and go to check the slip. The guy left me $5. To put this in perspective the cook/hostess tip-out amount (%2.5) of $195 is $4.88. Something I didn't mention earlier was that on Friday and Saturday nights we have a bartender that makes all our drinks for us (normally we have to make them ourselves) and so we have to tip out the bartender on all the booze sales we made. This table drank two pitchers of beer, 4 Vodka paralyzers (doubles) and a vodka 7. The alchohol alone on the table was probably $50-$60. So I have to tip the bartender out about $5-$6. All of a sudden this table just cost me $6 so that I could serve them for an hour and a half.
It was the worst hit-and-run I've ever had but it didn't bother me that much. . . My Chicka and a couple of her cool friends were sitting at a table not too far away so at least I had a few smiling faces to grease the sad situation with, not to mention the fact that they left me an exorbitant tip-- of which I am wholly grateful but I always feel bad taking money from people I know.
So my bad table was a bit of a hang-up but not much. I've had worse nights, not where a table robs me like this but just where things don't run very smoothly and I let myself get hung up on stupid people. Right after the table left I showed a friend I work with the signed cheque with the $5 dollar tip and he was quite taken back. Obviously the people I work with will empathize this sort of situation the most everyone having been through similar situations. About an hour later a different server with came up to me with $25. I thought she had just taken money from one of my tables and needed me to get her some change and then another server ran wildly up to me and gave me a bear hug. At which point a few more servers appeared and Roy (the guy I showed the bill to) explained they had all put together a tip for me.
I was speechless. The money wasn't the issue. I didn't want it and as I said before I feel bad taking money from people I know even after I serve them, but taking money from friends I work with was something inconcievable. But despite great effort they wouldn't take anything back. It's the nicest gesture anyone has done for me in a long time and it takes a certain amount of time to sink in. I don't know how to describe it any other way than being overcome by the cliche warm-fuzzy feeling that won't let you stop smiling. It makes me really happy to know that I work with such great people, and that even though a small persistent number of stupid people will try to wreck my day that an equally small group of friends has my back.
I should have posted this a while ago, but after working that night I was too tired to finish the post. I'm thinking I should start up a sort of relief-fund with the money they gave me for people who are dealt similar tables. Anyways I have to get ready for work now...
